0:00 On September 20, 1932, eleven ironworkers sat down for lunch on a steel beam, 850 feet above Manhattan.0:07 The photo of that moment became one of the most famous images of the 20th century.0:12 And it was a complete setup.0:14 Yeah, it really was.0:16 You know, in our last episode, we talked about finding the untold stories behind iconic photographs.0:23 Well, "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" might be the ultimate example of a picture whose story is totally different from what it looks like.0:32 Okay, hold on.0:33 A setup?0:33 You mean it's fake?0:35 Like, they weren't really up there?0:37 Oh, no, the danger was one hundred percent real.0:40 The height was real.0:42 They were on the 69th floor of the RCA Building, what's now 30 Rockefeller Plaza.0:47 And the men were genuine ironworkers.0:50 But the moment itself—the casual lunch break—that was staged.0:54 Staged for what?0:55 For a PR campaign.0:57 This was the peak of the Great Depression.0:59 The Rockefeller Center was this hugely ambitious, expensive project in a city full of unemployment.1:06 They needed to project confidence.1:09 They needed to sell the idea of American progress.1:12 So, they hired several photographers to go up there and create an image that would get people talking.1:19 So it's basically the 1932 version of an influencer marketing campaign.1:24 That is the PERFECT way to put it.1:26 Seriously.1:27 You get real people, you put them in this dramatic but controlled situation, and you manufacture a narrative.1:35 The narrative was: "Look at these fearless men, building the future, not even breaking a sweat." And it worked.1:42 The photo ran in the New York Herald-Tribune on October 2nd, and it just… exploded.1:48 So who was the photographer?1:50 Who's the person who actually got the shot?1:53 You know, for the most famous photo in the world, you'd think we'd know for sure.1:59 But we don't.2:00 The leading candidate is a man named Charles Clyde Ebbets.2:04 And his story fits—he was a known daredevil, a stuntman, exactly the kind of guy who would be comfortable leaning over the edge 800 feet up.2:13 But it's not confirmed?2:15 It's not.2:16 The problem is, there were other photographers up there that day, like Thomas Kelley and William Leftwich.2:23 The Rockefeller Center was just trying to get a good shot; they didn't seem to care who took it.2:30 For decades, the photo was just credited to "Unknown." It was only later that Ebbets's family found evidence, like his own records, suggesting it was him.2:40 Wow.2:41 So the photographer is a ghost.2:43 What about the men in the picture?2:45 Do we know who they are?2:47 That's just as hazy.2:48 For most of its life, the photo showed eleven anonymous symbols of the working man.2:54 Only recently have a few been identified.2:57 We know Joseph Eckner is the third man from the left, and Joe Curtis is the third from the right.3:03 Okay...3:04 And the man on the far right, holding up that bottle?3:08 That’s believed to be a Slovak immigrant named Gustáv Popovič.3:12 His family found the photo in his belongings with a note on the back that said "Don't you worry, my dear Mariška, as you can see I'm all right, just like you see me with a bottle in my hand." But the other eight?3:27 They're still lost to history.3:29 It's just so… strange.3:30 That a photo that feels so authentic, so candid, was actually so manufactured.3:36 Right?3:36 The former manager of the photo archive, a guy named Ken Johnston, put it perfectly.3:42 He said, "There's the incongruity between the action – lunch – and the place – 800 feet in the air – and that these guys are so casual about it." That casualness is the key.3:54 Yeah, that's what makes it feel real.3:56 They aren't looking at the camera like heroes.4:00 They're just… eating lunch.4:01 Exactly.4:02 Even though we know there's another photo from that same day where they're all pretending to take a nap on the beam, which looks completely goofy and staged.4:13 But the lunch photo… it captured something else.4:16 It was meant to be an ad for a building, but it accidentally became this profound statement about grace under pressure.4:24 So the feeling it gives you is real, even if the moment wasn't.4:29 I think that's why it endures.4:31 The context was real—the Depression, the danger of the work.4:35 The men were real.4:36 The photograph may have been a publicity stunt, but it captured a genuine spirit of resilience.4:43 The image made them look invincible.4:45 And maybe, for a moment, that's what people needed to feel.
